“Dear John,” part 3 (Faith and Freedom from Doubts)
Story – When I was just a little boy my mom was walking with me through our neighborhood. I was on my brand new tricycle and was pretending to be some big racecar driver when I saw a lady walking a little white puppy. I asked my mom if I could go pet it. She came with me and ask the elderly lady if the dog was friendly. She smiled and said, “oh yes.” So leaned over to the dogs level and stated to pet it when… SNAP. The dog reached over and bit me on the mouth. It got me in the lip and then proceeded to rip my lip apart. The point is that life is an uncertain thing. What seems to be a nice little innocent thing can reach up and bit us.
Tonight we conclude our series called “Dear John” with a look at the final chapter of the book of 1st John.
The first week we looked at “Walking in the Light” and said that God is light. In him there is no darkness, or sin, and that we are also called to walk in the light. Then last week we looked into chapter 3 and 4 and found that God wants us to be “Full of Love.”
We said that: God is a perfect and holy love, that we are to loving one another as a test of true Christianity, loving others leads to knowing God, and we know God is love because of Jesus sacrifice.
From this message we drew three applications: We need to be loving others, studying our Bibles and spending time with God, and showing and telling people about Jesus.
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Tonight we dig into chapter 5 and we address one of the basic concerns of all people, which is, We all have a fear of pain and death. And there are two very distinctive ways at looking at this issue of death and suffering. If you do not believe in God you live for the present, and your goal in life is gain the most number of things, for longest time, and have some kind of person to pass it all on to when you die. The assurance you have is in your money, or possessions, or in your country. The problem is that when a September 11th happens, or the stock market crashes, or you get sick with cancer, all of your security is shattered. It is a hopeless existence… we are all going to die and suffer, so why not get it over with now!!! The majority of our country and the civilized world live this kind of life. The alternative to this is what we are going to look at tonight.
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You are your parent’s child. I know I said that last week, but I want to make a point here. When you are a child of someone you have an inheritance. For some of us it may be thousands of dollars and a condominium in Boca Raton, or it may be thousands of dollars in debts and unpaid bills. Either way we all have an inheritance, and this inheritance does not have to be strictly about money. We all inherit certain traits and characteristics from our parents and whether we like to think about it or not, one day we will be a lot like them. But what is the inheritance of being one of God’s children? The answer to this question lies in the fact that as children of God we can take hold of many spiritual truths that result in “Faith and Freedom from Doubt” and worry. In the last chapter of 1st John we see some of these truths and especially when John writes this:
1 John 5:11 – 12 “And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” NRSV
We are a people who are obsessed with certainty.
Each of us strive to make sure that tomorrow is going to be as much like today as we can make it. This morning most of us got up at the same time and did the same routine that we have done every morning for the past 3 years. We go about these routines day after and day… We make the plans for tomorrow as familiar as they can be, but why? The answer lies in our fear of the uncertain, and that includes death. Just like the dog that bit me in the beginning of the message, life is unpredictable and very uncertain. This fact scares us, so we try to take control of this chaos and fear by planning our lives in such a way that things are as normal as possible. Think about this, when was the last time that you did not do something because of the fear of the first time, or that it would change things…
It probably was pretty recent for you. So we can all see that this is an uncertain and frightening world to live in, And John knew this as much in the 1st century when he wrote this as we do today. When John wrote this, early Christians were being burned as torches for garden parties, beheaded, and used as sporting entertainment only to be devoured by lions in the Coliseum. All of this persecution for simply following the ways of Christ who was himself killed. It all could have been avoided if they had simply denied Christ, but they did not. The reason was because they knew they had an eternal inheritance, and that is the first thing we need to see tonight.
As children of God we have
an eternal inheritance.
Look back at the verse we just read:
1 John 5:11 “And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. NRSV
Eternal life is a gift from God. No one has, or ever will be able to earn life forever. When Jesus Christ hung on the cross and died for the sins of Gods children he traded his life, a life with God that is eternal, for ours. If we have responded in love to God, by faith, for what he did for us we have the gift that is promised to his children. We have eternal life, we have an eternal inheritance. When I became a child of God my address ceased to be 157 Yacht Club Way, because it was changed to an address in the kingdom of God. The kingdom that will reign forever long after the kingdoms and country’s of this earth have passed. I read this poem one time a few years ago and it has stuck with me:
The stars shine over the mountain, the stars shine over the sea, the stars shine up to the mighty God, the stars look down on me;
The stars shall last for a million years, a million and a day, but God and I will live and love when the stars have passed away. – Robert Louis Stevenson
When all of the things of this world have passed away, we will be with the God of all creation and we will enjoy his presence forever. As a Christian, as a child of God, this is my inheritance. With this in mind the trivial things of this world seem somewhat pale in comparison. The sickness I face today will end, and I will live forever with my God. The war on terrorism will end and I will live forever with my God. Death and uncertainty will one day pass and I will be with my God forever. However this eternal inheritance if reserved for God’s children. God has made the provision but we need to respond in love, through faith, and believe that God has and will do this for us. We must turn over our rights to our life, and give them to God and his plan. We must turn from our sin and follow the path to greater Christlikeness.
Just like someone can give you a car, it does not mean that you will drive it… It would make sense to, but you could place it in the garage and never think about it again. It is not until you get behind the wheel, fasten the belts, start the motor and pull out of the driveway, that you have actually received the gift for its intended use. The same is true for eternal life, God has given it, but many live under the false illusion that one can claim the gift, Never get behind the wheel. In other words they want the fire insurance of Christianity, but never the moral baggage. This is not a true child of God, and this person should not expect the eternal life they wanted. It is only the sincere and faithful person who walks down the narrow road that will enter the kingdom of heaven. God has over the history of humankind offered eternal fellowship with himself, but we must act on this gift.
If we do not believe this and the fact that God has offered it the Bible says we make God out to be a liar, And if God is a liar I can promise you that everything in your life is uncertain and bound to crash.
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“You know Brian, it is nice to have this eternal gift and inheritance, but what about the here and now?”
“What does God offer his children now, what does God offer to me and my parents who are going through a divorce, or my grandmother who is losing her mind to Alzheimer’s?” We all have needs and we wrestle through tough situations all the time here on earth in this life so we must keep this second truth tonight:
God answers prayer
1 John 5:14 – 15 “And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the request made of him.” NRSV
Because of Jesus and the life, and fellowship he traded for ours, we now have the boldness as this verse puts it to go before God. We do not need a priest, or a special day to enter God’s throne room we simple must come to him. We have a confidence that what we tell him will be heard, but for prayer to be answered, at least in a positive sense, we must do two things. The verse that we just read says that if we pray according to his will… To do this we must overcome the first major obstacle preventing us from doing this, And that is un-confessed sin. Before we pray we should always make sure we have a clear conscience and pure heart. If we don’t then we need to ask for God’s forgiveness and for him to come and restore the relationship that was damaged by that sin.
The second obstacle that we must overcome for answered prayer is that our prayer might just simply not be in God’s will. A prayer that is not in God’s will cannot very well be praying according to his will, as the verse says is the requirement for answered prayer.
Our motives may be selfish or the prayer might be for something that will harm us in the end. Remember: Prayer is not a tool to get your will done here on earth, it is a tool to align you with God’s will here on earth. We must keep that mindset when we come before God. There will be times like Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, Not my will Father, but yours be done. God knows what is best for us, and his will for our lives is perfect. God will supply all of your needs, but he may not always supply all of your wants!!! This is the hope we have in prayer in the midst of an uncertain world.
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The final promise we need to realize to be free from worry and doubt is:
God will keep his children safe
1 John 5:18 “We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.” NRSV
“Wait a minute, does not sin, great I will never be safe!!!” The sin that this verse is referring to is not the occasional slip up,
It is the sin that we constantly do even though we know it is wrong, and we make no effort to stop it.
The Bible says that we are a new creation when we become a child of God, and we are no longer a slave to sin. If you are a child of God, you no longer have to sin!
You see freedom from SIN = freedom from HARM.
When we are in sin we damage our connection with God, and when this happens we live under a cloud of fear, fear of uncertainty and all of the other things we have mentioned. But God says he will keep us safe!
God has not promised that we would never get hurt, and God uses pain sometimes for good in our lives,
But the promise is that the devil cannot harm you.
He may tempt you, and he may try to rip your world apart like Job, but satan cannot in the end harm you, or your standing before God. You are God’s property!!!
God has given you power over sin, and he has given you power over satan, the one who comes to steal and destroy. We need to exercise this power in our battle with doubts and fear, and uncertainty. We need to exercise this power in our struggle with sin.
As I said in the opening being a child of God sets us free from worry, and fear, and doubt. When we take hold of the truths found in chapter 5 of 1st John, and throughout the Bible we can see that we can rest easy in the hands of God.
Prayer Time -----------------
If you are here tonight and you have wanted eternal life, you believe in God, but you have not given your life over to him. You have not got behind the wheel of your faith and taken it for a drive. You have never turned from your lifestyle of sin, you have never become a true Christian.
If this is you and you feel something inside of you drawing you towards this then cry out to God tonight.
Tell him that you believe in the message given of Jesus on the cross and the eternal life he provides. Tell God you are sorry for the sin you have done, and you need his power to leave that old life behind. Tell him that you want to be saved tonight and that you cannot do this. If this is your hearts cry tonight then the Bible says God will give you the power to be saved.
If you are a child of God and you have been struggling with worry and fear and doubt, then raise you hand so that I can pray for you…
God we thank you for your promises of eternal life, hearing our prayers, and your protection. Help us to take these to heart and rest in your hands. Give us the power to be free from sin and its hindrance. Amen.
